Group of car manufacturers sign Letter of Understanding on fuel cell electric vehicles

Fuel cell vehicles or electric vehicles – they both have one thing in common. An electric motor or multiple motors are at the core of the propulsion and the only difference is how the motors get their power.

At the beginning we could see different manufacturers head down different paths with their alternative fuel cars but today there has been an interesting development – a joint announcement from a few carmakers backing fuel cell electric vehicles.

A group of companies comprising of Daimler, Ford, GM/Opel, Renault, Nissan, Hyundai-Kia, Honda and Toyota have announced they’ve signed a Letter of Understanding regarding the development and market introduction of electric vehicles with fuel cells. These car companies strongly anticipate that from 2015 onwards, a significant amount of electric vehicles with fuel cells can be commercialised – a few hundred thousand units is the aim.

These manufacturers jointly call for countries to setup hydrogen infrastructures and in a way what I think they are doing is trying to convince the people responsible for the refueling infrastructure that once the network is set up, there will be cars to use them and make them viable. Yes, the idea of refueling your car from a wall socket is nice but currently it takes too long, even with a wall charger.

Refueling your car with hydrogen can potentially be as quick as refueling the various liquids we currently pump into our cars, but as it is refueling time would depend on how the hydrogen is stored on-board the car, and even that varies from manufacturer to manufacturer and even car to car.

After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.

Agree with Salamander and Scottloeb. Hydrogen main problem is cost and also how to store it in the car. Let alone how to transport hydrogen for refueling station. Remember that lorry carrying hydrogen is like a massive bomb. Terrorists will have a field day…

This is juicy news! Now the purveyor of market liberalization wants Governments to invest in H2 production? I'm surprised Renault's in it too, not long after committing to full electric vehicles early in the year. If this cartel thinks its a profitable venture, why don't they do it themselves?

Its not just production which is a big investment. Its also transportation and storage. You still need electricity to produce H2 don't you? And freeze it and compress it. This, in a time when every country is trying to save their own economy. I find it a bit foolish and careless.

When FORD started internal combustion engine vehicle mass production, how many petrol station and petroleum refineries were there in the world? Don't you think the concern raised for Hydrogen is similar to the concern raised then? Its only a question of chicken-and-egg …

I think many forummers here misunderstand one thing. There is no OPEC like cartel where they plan to restrict hydrogen fuel production nor control new manufacturers from entering the fuel cell car scene. This is just an agreement to commonize the fuel cell type, delivery systems and the like. With common standards, any fuel cell pumps will be able to pumps hydrogen to any cars which follow the standards. Otherwise, we will need multiple pump sizes with multiple type of fuel cell for each manufacturers.

Think of it like what happened to AV industries. All manufacturers now agreed to standardize to Blue ray instead of mixture of Blue ray, HD DVD and other competing formats.

Instead of charging battery, how bout changing battery 'hot swap' infrastructure. This also means all the battery units from various automaker are the same, thus lowering the price tru econs of scale, no need to maintain the battery also.

hot swap is not a good idea.. its like asking u to swap ur rechargeable battery for ur camera… do u really want someone else battery which is already worn out after years of abuse?? For no particular reason suddenly it explode like the hp battery explode problem.. then u have problem wit fake batteries made in china… i rather not support the hot swap idea.

Market will polarize into H2 fuel cell power cars for longer range but yet, full electric will dominate city car segments.

Electric cars are still cheaper to produce and have a simpler BOM, and therefore will be targeted to a different segment.

I can see this scenario panning out. One might have a full electric car which like me now, only drive 30km per day, which is 150per week. With battery improvements, thats one recharge per week. Not entirely a big hassle. When I need more range, I drive the fuel cell powered car.

Perhaps not in Malaysia, but I can still see the Full electrics getting a hugh tax rebate and limited to city limits.

In 'Hot Swap' infrastructure…..we dont have to maintain the battery, The hot swap business will maintain the battery. If they fail to maintain its quality then we go to another competitor. Just like fuel brands, if we dont like Shell, then we go to Petronas for better service.

Hydrogen can be generate by using electrolysis of water.and electrolysis process needs huge amount of electricity. the electricity consumption will raised tremendously and coal and fuel combustion will cause no way to combat our climate change..

but yes for sure, hydrogen is renewable energy..maybe someday, we can have a sustainable power generation beside taking care on our environment.

You can either post as a guest or have an option to register. Among the advantages of registering is once a name has been registered, a guest cannot post using that name. If you have an account, please login before commenting. If you wish to have a profile photo next to your name, register at Gravatar using the same e-mail address you use to comment.